This invention relates to underwater diving planes for use in towing a diver riding the plane at various depths below the surface of water.
Towed diving planes and related diving apparatus having wings that are controlled by the diver who rides the apparatus have been provided with means whereby the diver can control the apparatus diving angle and so control the depth underwater of the apparatus as it is towed through the water. Heretofore, such towed diving planes available for use by divers searching the bottom of shallow waters up to about 50 feet deep, have been been large and too heavy to be carried in a small boat or manipulated by a single diver.
The few such diving planes that are relatively small and could be manipulated by a single diver, such as the diving plane described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,948,251, issued to Edward A. Replogle on Aug. 9, 1960, and others of similar design, require that the diver manipulate wings that are pivotally attached to the sides of the apparatus using an elaborate mechanism including levers and springs to control the diving angle.
Such prior diving planes usually connect at a point at the center of the plane to a tow line and the tow line attachment is fixed, because in the event of detachment from the tow line, the plane would sink to the bottom of the water and thereafter would be difficult to locate and recover. Hence, the diver using such diving planes cannot disconnect from the tow line if it should become necessary for his own safety or any other reason. If the diver must, for some reason, leave the diving plane quickly, he must disengage himself from the plane and leave such equipment as he is carrying on the plane and while all this is going on he is not able to signal to the tow boat that he is off the plane and by the time the boat operator realizes this, the diver may be a considerable distance away from the towed plane.
The principal object of the present invention is to provide a diving plane of small size and simple structure that can be easily carried in a small boat and manipulated by a single diver.
A further object is to provide a diving plane that has none of the above mentioned limitations of prior diving planes.
Another object is to provide a diving plane that the diver can hold onto while leaving both hands free to control the diving plane and/or operate devices carried on the plane or carried by the diver and that the diver can control with one hand so that his other hand is free to do other things.
It is a further object to provide a diving plane that the diver on board can readily, quickly disconnect from the tow line with one hand and is sufficiently buoyant to float at the water surface so that it can be picked up by the tow boat operator or used as a float by the diver and/or other divers in the vicinity.